The new company is set to raise the bar for Outsourcing Services in the Middle East and North Africa to establish a new world-class benchmark.

Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain- 23rd November, 2005

Arab Financial Services Company B.S.C (c) (AFS), the region’s leading provider of electronic payments and consumer finance outsourcing services has announced in September 2005, the launch of a joint venture with Euronet Worldwide, Inc. (Nasdaq: EEFT), a worldwide renowned electronic payments provider to boost ATM and POS driving in Middle-East and North Africa.

The new joint venture company, 'Euronet Middle East', will offer unsurpassed outsourcing capabilities to banks and financial institutions across the Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan.

Euronet Middle East will be based in the Kingdom of Bahrain and will provide bank clients with debit card management and operational services, ATM and POS outsourcing services, Chip card issuing services, and Gateway services to Visa/MasterCard and National switches. The company will also provide value added services including bill payment and GSM top-up transactions, among others.

Euronet Middle East will have the region’s largest state-of-the-art card processing centre with a scalable capacity, utilizing Euronet's core software product, Integrated Transaction Management (ITM), which currently drives Euronet's processing centers in Europe and Asia Pacific. Moreover, Euronet Middle East has been licensed and regulated by Bahrain Monetary Agency.

Ghazi Abdul Jawad, chairman of AFS, said: 'The joint venture allows AFS to leverage its card outsourcing market leadership in the region with Euronet's proven software solutions and outsourcing services. Our strong business foundations and cultural affinity in the region, along with the technical and management support from Euronet, will ensure the success of this new venture.'

AFS will provide Euronet Middle East with the market reach required to gain a strong foothold in the region and Euronet will provide the technical expertise to operate the debit switching, ATM and POS outsourcing business model.

'The new joint venture allows Euronet to take advantage of the growing demand for innovative financial outsourcing solutions in the region and establish a world-class processing centre locally,' said John Romney, Euronet Worldwide Managing Director of EMEA region. 'This mutually-beneficial venture ensures that client banks in the region will benefit from the combined strengths and capabilities of Euronet and AFS.' added Romney.

‘Euronet Middle East will operate the biggest card processing and Management center in the Middle East with a capacity of 30 million transactions per month cards. Our state-of-the-art technology and consultancy services along with our dedicated account management resources will ensure that our client banks receive unsurpassed service quality which will enhance their retail banking performance.’ added Mr. Sael Al Waary, Chairman, Euronet Middle East.